MAF Carrefour awards regional network and managed services contract to Orange Business Services

The four-year IP VPN (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network) is worth several million US dollars and represents the largest deal of its kind (network/managed services) to be won by Orange Business Services in the Eastern Europe Middle East & Africa (EEMEA) region.

Mr Chris Mahiat, CIO of MAF Carrefour, says:

"Over the last two years, MAF Carrefour has been working to develop and implement a new IT strategy to meet the rapidly developing needs of the expanding regional business, for central support for financial, ERP and communications applications. This agreement with Orange Business Services gives us access to a highly flexible network with regional and global reach and a comprehensive set of services which simplifies the management process and offers scalability. It's a new standard that can offer a platform for MAF Retail across the region."

MAF Carrefour plans to more than double the number of stores in the Middle East region by 2012. The company already employs over 2,500 staff in 30 stores in 11 countries in the Middle East region and serves 10 million shoppers.

Mr Ahmed Bahgat, Network & Telecom Manager for MAF Carrefour, adds: "The Orange Business Services adaptive MPLS network will deliver VPN connectivity making it easy for the MAF Carrefour network to expand and develop to meet evolving needs. The servers will sit in our Dubai headquarters."

The Orange VPN consists of multiple backbone, access, and router technology, tied together with a single network operation and management system. Using IP network technology will lead to an overall lowest cost network solution for MAF Carrefour that meets the performance needs of each of their sites. The associated security services will be hosted from the Orange Business Services data centre in France.

This contract will be managed under a Global Account Management agreement with the Carrefour account team in France.

Mr Lionel Reina, VP EEMEA for Orange Business Services, comments: "This network and managed services contract with MAF Carrefour reinforces the importance of global and regional reach, when it comes to connectivity solutions for multinational and large regional corporations. Orange Business Services has the world's largest IP VPN offering global connectivity to multinational companies worldwide and across the Middle East. We already work with more than 200 multinational companies in the region and more than 100 banks."